giovedì 6 ottobre 2016

News tratta da Slashfilm.comAgent Carter Showrunners Michele Fazekas and Tara Butters have
sold an hour-long dramatic television series pitch to Disney-owned
network ABC, that is “based on the Disney theme park mythology”. As a
Disneyland fanatic, this excites me, even though I can’t quite
comprehend what this even means.
So what do we know about this tv series pitch? Not much. Deadline (via)
has reported that the television project is “based on the Disney theme
park mythology.” We know that the show project is untitled, although it
is going under the code name “Hyperion.” The duo is executive producing
with former Disney executive-turned-producer Jason Reed (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles). Other than that, details are being kept tightly under wraps for now.

My
first thought is this dramatic series could be about the creation of
Disneyland, following the struggle of Walt Disney and the early
Imagineers. I’m not sure Dinsey would want to put their legendary
founder as a character in a tv series, although they did have Tom Hanks
play Disney in Saving Mr. Banks and Walt was originally a much larger part of Brad Bird’s Tomorrowland.
My second thought is that maybe it’s somehow like the Magic Kingdom film project
that Jon Favreau spent years trying to make, set inside the theme park
where the lands and characters come to life after the park gates are
closed. Favreau was hoping to get back to the Magic Kingdom after Jungle
Book, but he instead, for whatever reason, decided to do a “live-action” remake of The Lion king instead.
Disney has a series of children’s books called The Kingdom Keepers,
which follows the adventures of five teens who, by day, are holographic
hosts in the Disney Theme Parks and by night, battle Disney Villains to
keep them from taking control of the parks, the Disney entertainment
empire, and the world. Fans have wanted a movie adaptation for some
time, but author Ridley Pearson has said that “Disney currently has no
plans to make any Kingdom Keepers movies,” that he “would love to have
the Kingdom Keepers become a movie” but “unfortunately it is not up to
me.” It’s possible this could be an adaptation of this successful book
franchise.
It’s possible it could be an anthology series of some
kind, but it doesn’t appear as if the project is based on a ride or
attraction, but the mythology of the park itself.

During the Hyperion Studios short 14 years, Oswald the
Lucky Rabbit, Mickey and Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck, Snow White,
Pinocchio and many more beloved characters were given life. In many
ways, the Hyperion Studios represents “the golden age” of Walt Disney’s
imagination.

But by 1939 there was no more room to
grow on the Hyperion Studio lot and the company was forced to move to
Burbank. Of course, the Hyperion days were well before Walt Disney
started construction on Disneyland. But he did come up with the earliest
ideas for the park in the 1930’s when his office was still in the
Hyperion studio. However, the earliest date of Walt’s plans to build a
theme park was not until 1948, so we can’t find a connection between
Hyperion and Disneyland itself. I’ve often thought that a theme
park would make a great setting for a television series. MTV had a show
called Happyland, but it was pretty horrible even by the lowest of
standards. I’m very curious to learn how the mythology of Disneyland
fits into this tv pitch.
Fazekas & Butters credits include Law
& Order: Special Victims Unit, Reaper, Dollhouse, Hawaii Five-0,
Resurrection and Agent Carter.